Denison coach Jack Hatem let out a nervous laugh when it was mentioned that his team wasn’t exactly tip-toeing into the season against a soft opponent.

Hatem said playing Ohio Wesleyan the first week is a small-college version of Ohio State-Michigan.

“No pressure, right?” Hatem said. “We’re opening against our biggest rival. The game is under the lights. The game will be played in front of a lot of people. That’s a lot going on the first week. This game holds a lot of passion, only there are fewer people than Ohio State-Michigan. Ohio Wesleyan always is in our thoughts.”

Denison coaches and players began talking about Ohio Wesleyan when offseason workouts began during the winter. In 2011, the Big Red lost to the Bishops 17-14 in the season opener and ended up one victory short of a winning season.

“We’ve broken every meeting, every workout and every practice with, ‘Beat OWU,’” said Braden Layer, a senior receiver from Upper Arlington. “It has been this way for nine months. We felt we were right there with them last year. We felt we should have won.”

The game will have a different face on one sideline, with Ohio Wesleyan coach Mike Hollway having retired after 25 seasons. He was succeeded by Tom Watts, a former Baldwin-Wallace assistant.

“You can tell the coaches are very excited about this game and they have grasped what this game means,” Bishops quarterback Mason Espinosa said. “The coaches have seen tapes of the previous games. They know the magnitude. I found out the importance of the game from the upperclassmen. They told the freshmen, ‘This is the team we love to play against.’”

Watts would not reveal what Ohio Wesleyan plans to do offensively and defensively, but he said it would be similar to the approach used by Baldwin-Wallace: physical play and fundamentals.

“We are going to do the little things — we want to be sound,” Watts said. “We’ll be balanced on offense. We will run the football.”

Watts is excited because the administration has made a considerable financial commitment to football, including a refurbished weight room.